Written during the COVID-19 pandemic,[4] it was recorded at Candy Bomber Studio in Berlin, Germany across 2022, with key collaborators of front man Michael Gira, as well as both past and present members of the band.

[10][11] Tyler Golsen of Far Out described the album's tone as "dark, mysterious, and lingering" and mentioned "Gira's signature ominous bray frequently moans and gargles its way throughout the seemingly-endless songs".

[12] Compositions on The Beggar are constructed around heavy repetition, that unlike the sheer force of older Swans records, is described by Aural Aggravation's Christopher Nosnibor as "woozy and nagging".

[22] In a review for The Guardian, critic Dave Simpson wrote that the album's "prevailing atmosphere" is "one of unsettling, claustrophobic unease, as [Gira] contemplates life and mortality" and compared tracks "Los Angeles: City of Death", "Michael Is Done" and "Unforming" to the work of the Velvet Underground, Brian Eno and Spiritualized, respectively.

[29] For MusicOMH, David Murphy proposed the album has "two [flavors], gliding between sweet and sour, heavenly and harrowing, or […] paradise and parasite" and wrote that "whilst listening is intentionally oppressive, it’s like the insidious continual whisper of conscience rather than the brimstone sermon, and even when songs reach a clangorous attack they tend to build frog-boilingly slowly from hushed beginnings".

[25] The Arts Desk's Guy Oddy stated that "there is plenty that is new and interesting on The Beggar" while also noting "at two hours' long, some may still find it a bit much to consume in one sitting" in an overall positive review.

[12] All tracks are written by Michael GiraNotes Credits adapted from The Beggar digital liner notes and press release.